Innovation in Arms Control Winners To Be Announced During Google+ Hangout

Our smaller, faster-paced world is changing the security landscape, and these changes will bring with them new challenges and evolutions in current threats. To respond to these changes, we must adapt instruments of statecraft to bring to bear the networks, technologies and human potential of our increasingly inter-dependent and interconnected world.

Last summer, the U.S. Department of State challenged the American public, "garage tinkerers and technologists...gadget entrepreneurs and students," to come up with innovative ideas to support U.S. arms control and nonproliferation efforts.

Arms control diplomacy, usually considered the arcane specialty of nerdy and secretive scientists, began at the height of the Cold War, but it's now happening in the open and it's changing fast. With the explosion in information technologies, the State Department believes there are plenty of ideas out there to make arms control more transparent.

On Monday, March 4, 2013, at 1:30 p.m. EST, Acting Under Secretary Gottemoeller will announce the winners of the Department of State's Innovation in Arms Control Challenge during a Google+ Hangout and reveal their creative new ideas to the world. C-NET's senior writer Daniel Terdiman will moderate the discussion. They will discuss how innovative technology can be used in helping to protect the globe from the risks posed by WMDs.

You can watch the Hangout on the State Department's Google+ Home page or YouTube channel. You can participate in the discussion by submitting questions on the Department of State's Google+ page or on Twitter using the hashtag #AskState, and continue the conversation with @Gottemoeller on Twitter.

Comments

Comments

Ashim C.

|

India

February 28, 2013

Ashim C. in India writes:

Arms control is important. But arms build up cannot be wished away so long as threat perceptions of nations exist and conflict resolving resolutions of international community remain ineffective.

Take India for example. Today itself Indian budget has proposed an outlay of US$ 37.7 billion out of which close to US $ 17 billions shall be spent on purchase of new defense equipments. This seems fully justified given the reality that because of an old and redundant 1948 UNSC resolution for plebiscite Pakistan is able to keep alive the Kashmir issue denying provisions of India independence act as passed by British Parliament, which gave former ruler of Jammu & Kashmir the right to remain independent or accede to either India or Pakistan. How can Pakistan base it claims denying provisions of an act, which created the state of Pakistan itself. If plebiscite and refrendum is so important, Pakistan should have insisted for a referendum on an All India basis in undevided India before accepting the Independence Act of British parliament. Then Pakistan ceded part of occupied Kashmir to China, the world knows now has a habit making territorial claims based on conjectures of history. It is well known that how fragile was Central Authority of China generally for most part of it's history and how much defacto control it had over territories along himalaya. Just because in distant past some local cheiftain might have paid nominal tributaries to the so called Chinese Emperor does not justify Chinese territorial claims anywhere along Himalaya.

International community has a responsibility to change all these and declare by another UNSC resolution irrelevance of the earlier resolution on Kashmir just because inluenced by pacific intention Indian Government refereed the Kashmir dispute to UNO without doubting mischievious role of UNO and some of it's members - specifically British Government which knew every word of what has been said hereabove and yet failed to mention the inalienable right of Prince of Kashmir to accede to India and thus created a permant problem, which is now breeding terrorism and intolerance in this part of the world.
In this backdrop how can anyone ask say India to opt for disarmament when India is threatened terrorism from Pakistan and policies of aggrandisememt by China ?

But nothing at the same time alter the fact that a poor country like India ought to be able to devote all it's resources for positive progress of it's people.

On the other hand there are surplus millitary strength, whose development and maintainence is a huge drain for US economy. It has an imperative need to earn as much value as possible out of it's investments in it's armament so far.

US diplomacy should consider sharing it's millitary might by offering them on lease so that defense expenditure of poor developing countries like India and Pakistan in South Asia can be brought down to the very minimum. The saving can be diverted for social and economic development to improve lives of their people. Countries like India and Pakistan can in return lend their human resources for peacekeeping wherever required to save all developed countries from domestic criticism on policies of strategic engagements involving their own people. This is a win win situation for all. A small but easy beginning could be a unilateral suo moto declaration by US and it's allies that they would intervene if ever their strategic partners are attacked. This would be a real "one small step a giaint feat forward" for US diplomacy.